A technique related to the above-described wheelchair securing device is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-126005.
This wheelchair securing device has reels in four corners. The reels respectively have retaining members of wires that are respectively wound around the reels so as to be took up thereto and drawn therefrom. Further, hooks to be hooked on a wheelchair are attached to distal ends of the retaining members. The reels are respectively biased by spring forces in directions to reeling up the retaining members, so that the retaining members can be reeled out against the spring forces.
Further, the reels respectively have gears that are coaxially secured thereto. The gears are respectively configured to mesh with gears of rotation lock mechanisms of the reels.
According to the construction described above, when the hooks are hooked on the wheelchair after the retaining members are reeled out against the spring forces, tensions can respectively be imparted to the retaining members due to the spring forces. In this condition, when the gears of the rotation lock mechanisms respectively mesh with the gears of the reels by operating the rotation lock mechanisms, the reels can be rotationally locked, so that the wheelchair can be secured in a vehicle cabin of a vehicle.
However, in the above-described wheelchair securing device, the reels can be rotationally locked by operating the rotation lock mechanisms. Therefore, if a user inadvertently fails to operate the rotation lock mechanisms, the reels cannot be rotationally locked. If the vehicle is started to move in a condition in which the reels are not rotationally locked, the retaining members can be reeled out against the spring forces due to a load applied to the wheelchair, so that the wheelchair can possibly move backwards.
In order to prevent this, it is necessary to combine the above-described wheelchair securing device with a wheelchair securing device described in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-89532.
The wheelchair securing device described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-89532 has a retractor that is capable of taking up and paying out a belt. A hook to be hooked on a wheelchair is attached to a distal end of the belt. Also, the retractor has a lock mechanism that is configured to prohibit the belt from being drawn from the retractor when the belt is forced to be drawn therefrom with a force greater than a predetermined force. As a result, even if the wheelchair is pressed to move by, for example, start of the vehicle, the belt can be prohibited from being paid out due to action of the lock mechanism of the retractor, so that the wheelchair can be prevented from moving.
However, in a construction in which the wheelchair securing device described in Patent Document 1 and the wheelchair securing device described in Patent Document 2 are combined with each other, the wheelchair securing device can be increased in size. This is not desirable for use in the vehicle.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide an improved wheelchair seatbelt device.